1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a network facsimile apparatus, and, in particular, to a technology in carrying out an electronic-mail transmission of a communication management report concerning facsimile communications performed in the network facsimile apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, communication management information obtained from collecting communication management reports output from a facsimile apparatus is used for management of the total number of sheets of facsimile communication documents/letters, communication bill calculation, management of communication results, or so. However, since, conventionally, communication management reports are provided by sheets of paper, they may be erroneously taken away by an unauthorized person together with another document, and, thus, may be lost in some case. Accordingly, actually it may not be possible for an authorized person to completely collect the communication management reports.
Japanese laid-open patent application No. 2000-261640 proposes a method for solving such a problem for example. According to this related art (referred to as a first related art), upon receiving a predetermined command e-mail (electronic mail) requesting communication management information via a communication network, for example, the Internet, a facsimile apparatus transmits a communication management report to the source of the command. According to this method, there is no need to output the report by a sheet of paper, and, thus, no case occurs where the report is lost.
Japanese laid-open patent application No. 10-98606 discloses another configuration of providing report data without using paper resource. In this configuration (referred to as a second related art), when a number of records in the report data reaches a predetermined value in a relevant communication terminal apparatus, the report data stored is transmitted to a computer via a communication network.
However, even in the method according to the first related art, the command e-mail may not be necessarily issued only when the communication management information cumulatively stored in a storage device in the machine becomes full so that it should be then renewed. Accordingly, the communication management information thus collected in a user may include duplication or a lack in the information of record. There is a need for a system by which the user can collect the communication management information efficiently without omission in the information.
According to the second related art, the information is transmitted to the predetermined computer via the communication network when the number of records stored until then reaches a predetermined number. However, a user may wish that a timing of such a transmission of the information may be set or specified according to various requirements other than simply the number of records stored.